Deputies raised a non-childish issue – Kommersant

On Tuesday, the State Duma will initiate the second parliamentary investigation in the last year against Ukraine – this time about the “crimes of the Kyiv regime” against children. The corresponding decision was made on Monday by the Council of the Chamber. The co-chair of the commission from the Duma will be the former children’s ombudsman, vice-speaker Anna Kuznetsova. Experts believe that the result of this work, as in the case of the investigation of the activities of American biological laboratories in Ukraine, will be the provision of the obtained evidence to the international community, but the target audience will be not Western politicians, but the parliaments of the “global South”.

On June 13, the Council of the Duma gave the order to prepare proposals for initiating a parliamentary investigation into the crimes of the “Kyiv regime” against minors to Vice Speaker Anna Kuznetsova (United Russia) on the initiative of the chairman of the chamber, Vyacheslav Volodin. On June 19, the council discussed these proposals at its regular meeting. Approximately 400 deputies representing all parliamentary factions signed the appeal to establish the commission.

The authors of the appeal refer to the data of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), according to which from 2014 to December 2022, 2,287 criminal cases were initiated against 655 persons, including representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies, members of radical nationalist associations.

“According to available information, more than 5,000 civilians, including over 130 minors, were killed as a result of the armed conflict. At least 9,500 civilians were injured, including more than 400 children and teenagers,” the document says.

The deputies note that “there are also facts of ill-treatment, child trafficking, sexual crimes, violations in the transfer of children to foreign citizens, noted, among other things, by official reports from law enforcement agencies of foreign states.”

The Duma part of the commission will include representatives of all factions: Badma Bashankaev, Olga Kazakova, Andrey Kartapolov, Olga Korobova, Anna Kuznetsova, Vasily Piskarev and Olga Timofeeva from “United Russia”Maria Drobot and Nina Ostanina from CPRFYana Lantratova from “Fair Russia – For Truth”Leonid Slutsky and Ivan Sukharev from LDPROleg Leonov from “New people”. If the senators agree with this initiative, the Federation Council will form the second part of the commission.

After the meeting of the Council of the Duma, Mrs. Kuznetsova reminded journalists that at the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the topic of “genocide and fascist actions” against the civilian population, including the murder of children, was raised by President Vladimir Putin, who drew “a clear parallel with the crimes that today committed against the civilian population in the Donbass.” The vice speaker noted that international institutions, including the UN, international courts, the ECtHR and other structures, “proved their toothlessness”, ignoring “thousands of appeals” coming from Donbass. Meanwhile, relevant commissions have already been created in the new subjects of the Russian Federation, which have been recording the facts of crimes since 2014, and they will take an active part in the work of the parliamentary commission, the deputy promised. Also, according to her, the initiative to initiate a parliamentary investigation was supported by “colleagues from law enforcement agencies.”

According to the law on parliamentary investigation, the initiative to conduct it must come from at least 90 parliamentarians, after which, with the consent of both chambers, a joint commission is formed. “This format has not been used for more than ten years, but in this convocation of the State Duma this is already the second initiative, both times it belonged to the deputies of United Russia, and then was supported by other factions and senators,” recalls political scientist Pavel Sklyanchuk. “Members of the commission are authorized to request information from various authorities, the result of the work is a special report. For example, as part of an investigation into the activities of US biolaboratories, deputies sent appeals to the parliaments of the world and suggested raising the issue at the UN Security Council.” Most likely, the result of the investigation of crimes against minors will be “an evidence base that will be presented to the international community,” the expert suggests: “Considering that Anna Kuznetsova previously held the position of presidential commissioner for children’s rights, she is well aware of the problem.”

Political scientist Oleksiy Makarkin believes that the activities of parliamentary commissions are aimed at convincing not only Europe and America of their rightness on the Ukrainian issue, but the parliaments of the so-called global South.

Although there are some “minority deputies” in the West, who, being anti-globalists, can perceive the information of such investigations as an additional argument, the expert adds. “The goal is simple – to respond to accusations with accusations, to convince not the world community as a whole, but that part of it that is ready to accept Russia’s arguments,” political analyst Konstantin Kalachev agrees. their reunification with their parents, and about the fact that Ukraine violates the rights of minors. An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth”.

Recallthat in March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Anna Kuznetsova on suspicion of illegally exporting Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation. In response, the TFR initiated a criminal case against the judges who made this decision under three articles of the Criminal Code, including the prosecution of a knowingly innocent person.

Ksenia Veretennikova